Alleging that the ruling BJP, fearing defeat in the December 5 bypolls, has tried to contact some of its MLAs with an intention to engineer defections, the Congress in Karnataka Monday warned the saffron party of a backlash from the party and people if they went about it.
The principal Opposition party also claimed that BJP was spending about ` 1,000 crore “corrupt money” for the bypoll.
“I want to tell one thing to BJP- some of their leaders have claimed that Congress MLAs are ready to join them...Im warning them not to again indulge in Operation Kamala (poaching of opposition MLAs),” KPCC President Dinesh Gundu Rao told reporters here.
“...In fact, they are already making phone calls to our MLAs, already called a few of them. If it repeats, we will not spare you... If it (poaching) repeats, we will not spare you. They (BJP) know they will lose in the bypolls...
If they indulge in Operation Kamala again, leave alone Congress, people will chase and beat them. Dont indulge in such undemocratic things, he added.
Clarifying that Congress would not indulge in such “operations”, Rao said disqualified Congress legislators like Byrathi Basavaraj, S T Somashekar and Munirathna- who are now BJP candidates, had in fact said they wanted to re-join the party, a request which was turned down.
The bypolls were necessitated after the resignation and absence of 17 Congress-JD(S) legislators during the trust vote, leading to the collapse of the coalition government and paving the way for BJP to come to power.